This web log serves as a forum for news, views and discussion about all things related to the science of food: food chemistry, microbiology, engineering, process technology, and nutrition. Also discussed are issues related to food safety, GMO foods, organic foods, health and wellness, and news about what's going on in the PSU Food Science Department.

February 05, 2016

Have you ever wondered why your pancakes sometimes have ugly craters, or a weird ring around their edges? A new analysis of pancake recipes could help you exploit physics to make the perfect pancake — and possibly one day save your sight. The appearance of pancakes depends on how water escapes the batter mix during the cooking process and this varies with the thickness of the batter, according to new UCL research. Understanding the physics of the process can help perfect pancake making and gives important insights into how flexible sheets, like those found in human eyes, interact with flowing vapour and liquids. [MORE]

November 21, 2015

Local and organic is a romantic myth – the future of sustainable agriculture is all about smart technology and scaling up.

The logic of farmers’ markets begins with this: that the route from harvest to plate ought to be as direct as possible. That’s fine if farmers live round the corner from consumers. But urban land is in short supply, expensive, often polluted, and unsuitable for horticulture. And there is more. Even in a short chain from farm to table, produce can get spoiled. A fresh tomato is not dead; like all fresh products, it’s a living organism with an active metabolism, post-harvesting, that provides a fertile substrate for microorganisms and causes tomatoes to deteriorate very fast. Freshness does not in itself translate into sustainability: unless the supply chain is well‑organised, losses can be considerable. And food losses come down to a waste of land, water, energy and chemicals used to produce what is ultimately discarded. This ought to be a good argument for local markets, but it is not. Everything depends on transportation, storage and speed. Poorly packed products go to waste in a matter of hours. [MORE]

November 01, 2015

Cheese is a delicious invention. But if you saw the news last week, you might think it’s on its way to being classified as a Schedule II drug. Headlines proclaimed “Say cheese? All the time? Maybe you have an addiction,” “Cheese really is crack” and “Your cheese addiction is real.” Under the headlines, the stories referred to a study examining the addictive properties of various foods. Pizza was at the top. The reason? The addictive properties of cheese, which the articles claim contains “dangerous” opiate-like chemicals called casomorphins. But you can’t explain away your affinity for cheese by saying you’re addicted. [MORE]

October 19, 2015

Like many biologists, Ricardo C. Rodríguez de la Vega searches the world for new species. But while other scientists venture into the depths of the ocean or the heart of the jungle, Dr. Rodríguez de la Vega and his colleagues visit cheese shops. “Every time we’re traveling internationally for a conference or something, we go specifically to the local cheese shop and say, ‘Give me the wildest blue cheese you have,’ ” said Dr. Rodríguez de la Vega, an evolutionary biologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris. The cheese they buy is alive with fungi; indeed, many cheeses require a particular species of mold to properly ripen. To produce Roquefort blue cheese, for example, cheese makers mix Penicillium roqueforti into fermenting curds. The mold spreads throughout the cheese, giving it not only a distinctive blue color but also its (acquired) taste. [MORE]

October 01, 2015

Is genetically engineered food dangerous? Many people seem to think it is. In the past five years, companies have submitted more than 27,000 products to the Non-GMO Project, which certifies goods that are free of genetically modified organisms. Last year, sales of such products nearly tripled. Whole Foods will soon require labels on all GMOs in its stores. Abbott, the company that makes Similac baby formula, has created a non-GMO version to give parents “peace of mind.” Trader Joe’s has sworn off GMOs. So has Chipotle.

- The war against genetically modified organisms is full of fear mongering, errors, and fraud. Labeling them will not make you safer. [MORE]

September 12, 2015

THERE ARE BUGS IN your food and makeup. Some of them are there on purpose.

One of the best known is cochineal, a red color additive derived from a scale insect called, appropriately, the cochineal scale (Dactylopius coccus). Cochineal is a naturally occurring compound that’s been used by humans for hundreds of years, and provides an important source of cash for a lot of rural Central and South American people. [MORE]

August 20, 2015

CHEESE PURISTS THE world over exalt their mummified milk. Their silken Goudas and savory Emmentalers. Their fetid fetas and squeaky queso frescos. Their moldy Roqueforts and runny Camemberts. These disks of rotted dairy are the pinnacle of thousands of years of experimentation that began when a herdsman carrying a ruminant’s stomach brimming with milk found that by journey’s end, he had a bag full of curds and whey.

Modern cheese making is a little more complicated, but the same principles apply. [MORE]

July 22, 2015

Manipulating sound can transform our experience of food and drink, making stale potato chips taste fresh, adding the sensation of cream to black coffee, or boosting the savory, peaty notes in whiskey. Composers have written music to go with feasts and banquets since antiquity—indeed, in at a particularly spectacular dinner hosted by Duke Philip of Burgundy in 1454, twenty-eight musicians were hidden inside an immense pie, beginning to play as the crust was opened. Today, however, most chefs and restaurants fail to consider the sonic aspects of eating and drinking. [MORE]

June 22, 2015

Good news for those who find themselves regretfully tossing out their untouched groceries: If you're one to throw away your food as soon as it hits that barely legible date on its packaging, you're probably wasting way more food than you need to. Turns out, those dates aren't necessarily hard expiration dates—and they definitely don't all mean the same thing.

Don't worry, though. We can clear up the confusion: In a recent report for Institute of Food Technologists, Bob Brackett, PhD, director of the Institute for Food Safety and Health at the Illinois Institute of Technology, breaks down the difference between those "use-by," "sell-by," and "best-by" labels. [MORE].

June 01, 2015

Throughout human history, if you wanted to make a dish taste like strawberry, you had no choice but to add a strawberry. But in the 19th century, scientists began to understand how to synthesize flavor chemicals, whether from plants or from byproducts of coal processing, to evoke familiar flavors.

While the technology to evaluate the flavor molecules of a particular food have become increasingly sophisticated in the past century, the basic concept of synthetic flavor has remained unchanged. Until now. In this episode of Gastropod, molecular biologists explain how they're designing yeasts to ferment the tastes of the future. [MORE]